The power of new media

Not many would know singer Andre Hazes who died yesterday at the age of 53 and was reported on the radio at 11.45 AM.

What, however is interesting is the overall development that followed the news.

First of all, his website, andrehazes.nl, reported high traffic (11,000 visitors at noon vs. 150 on a normal day), as did websites like condoleance.nl, where visitors can leave messages: More than 50,000 people have left wishes.

Secondly, mobile phone calls were up 10 percent, according to telecom operator KPN. And at noon, SMS (text messaging) traffic doubled.

What is so interesting? It shows that the world of communication is changing rapidly - away from the traditional news, which is when newspaper publish at a regular schedule to be bought early in the morning, or the hourly news on radio and television. All it needs is an interesting trigger and once a tipping point is reached, the message spreads dramatically. Just a pity that still, not many companies recognise this tremendous power, and if they realise it, they frequently use it wrongly and bombard the consumer with useless advertisements.